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Obama’s Accomplishments

As he runs for re-election, President Obama wants to point to
his accomplishments in office. Trouble is, he’s having trouble
identifying them.

He killed Osama bin Laden, for sure. But after that…

He’d like to say that the economy is getting better, but the
slow recovery is hampering his ability to sell that idea to the
public. He likes to say that he saved General Motors and Chrysler;
his critics argue that he really spent $23 billion of taxpayers’
money to force the companies into bankruptcy and save the United
Auto Workers Union. The president also has tried to claim that
federal spending was increasing more slowly on his watch than in
any presidency in 60 years, but the data don’t bear out that
narrative.

So the president’s accomplishments are a little difficult to
find. But I’m here to offer assistance. I’ve combed through the
research, and unearthed some achievements the president can
claim:

Most deportations. Despite his endorsement of
the DREAM Act, President Obama has deported more illegal immigrants
than any president in history. He’s been deporting about 400,000
people a year, about double the number in the George W. Bush
administration.

Most leaks prosecutions. The Obama
administration has been criticized for leaking classified
information in a series of campaigns to portray the president as a
tough, engaged commander-in-chief. But meanwhile the administration
information has used the 1917 Espionage Act to target suspected
leakers in twice as many cases as all previous presidential
administrations combined.

Most troops in Afghanistan. The United States
had about 30,000 troops in Afghanistan during 2008, the last year
of President Bush’s term. By the end of 2010, President Obama had
increased that number to almost 100,000. It’s down to about 88,000
now, which still might surprise people who recall candidate Obama’s
ringing antiwar speeches of 2008.

Most medical marijuana raids. In March 2009
Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Justice Department would
end the Bush administration policy of raiding medical marijuana
distributors that violated federal statutes as long as the
dispensaries appeared to be complying with state laws. Beginning
later that year, however, as Lucia Graves reported at The
Huffington Post,

“The administration has unleashed an interagency cannabis
crackdown that goes beyond anything seen under the Bush
administration, with more than 100 raids, primarily on California
pot dispensaries, many of them operating in full compliance with
state laws. Since October 2009, the Justice Department has
conducted more than 170 aggressive SWAT-style raids in 9 medical
marijuana states, resulting in at least 61 federal
indictments.”

Federal agents have seized property of landlords who rent space
to medical marijuana dispensaries and have threatened to prosecute
state employees who carry out state laws on medical marijuana.

Most drone strikes. President Obama doesn’t
like the way the Bush administration treated prisoners at
Guantanamo, so he’s taking fewer prisoners. The Obama
administration has carried out at least 308 covert drone strikes in
Pakistan, more than five times the 44 approved under Bush.

Most fundraisers. All presidents spend a lot of
their time fundraising. But President Obama leads the league.
Political scientist Brendan J. Doherty, author of the new book
The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign, reports
that Obama had held 104 fundraisers by March 6,compared to 94 held
by Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill
Clinton and George W. Bush combined. CBS News White House
correspondent Mark Knoller noted that by June 12 Obama had done 160
re-election fundraisers, twice as many as Bush by the same point in
2004.

The economy may not get much better this year, not with all the
taxes, spending and regulation weighing it down. President Obama
may be hoping to achieve the distinction of being the president
reelected with the highest unemployment rate.

In the meantime, though, he’s got a lot of accomplishments he
could boast about — if he dares.